


Of Opportunity Cost and Opportunistic Behavior

by Melethril



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternative Universe – Post AoU, Angst, But if it was: Team Iron Man!, Dr. Strange to the rescue, Gen, Genius Helen Cho, Genius Tony Stark, Hawkeye remained an Avenger after AoU, Hurt No Comfort, I mean it, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, The snarkiest damsel in distress meets sarcastic prince, Tony Stark is not a damsel, author is highly protective of Tony Stark, borderline emotional abuse, enter at your own risk, not Avengers friendly as a whole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2018-11-03 07:24:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10962498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melethril/pseuds/Melethril
Summary: Opportunity cost = the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.Opportunistic behavior = taking advantage of an opportunity not normally available





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> One-shot turned two-shot that came to mind while working in the lab. This is a AU-story post Ultron, so the behavior of Tony and the others may seem OOC.
> 
> If you love Steve, Clint and Wanda with all your heart, don't read this, please (can't say anything too bad about the others yet, but I'm not making promises). I don't wish to hurt your feelings.
> 
> I love MCU!Steve… as long he is not around Tony (loved how he talked to Bruce in Avengers, for example; wanted to hug him in Winter Soldier, especially that scene with Peggy).  
> I love Clint… except for his weird motivation in Civil War.  
> Wanda… I reserve judgment until Infinity War. Until then, she is the worst redemption arc in MCU history and that includes Stephen Strange (who is an asshole in the beginning and remains one until the end… which is quite an amazing thing, actually, and almost makes me like him => not quite though; I respect him and his accomplishments, though)

Tony whistled as he danced around the kitchen. He was buzzing with energy and the sense of accomplishment. This had been a nice little challenge…

He did not often do commissioned work, mostly because of patent concerns and because the SI Board hated it. They only let him do it when it brought good publicity or if Tony dangled some proverbial carrot in front of them (or a literal carrot like that one time he had presented a holographic tool for the StarkPhones and StarkComputers). However, the request had simply been too good to pass up (and after the Ultron debacle, the Board jumped at the idea of allowing Tony to do biotechnological work that would revolutionize medicine regarding see and hearing impairment). Besides, Lars and Catherine now worked for the company commissioning the work because they had wished to work for a smaller corporation (though they did say that they missed the freedom he had given them) that dived more into the bio part of technology than SI did at the moment, and they had asked him personally for a consultation. He liked those two. He liked all of his engineers. He never liked seeing them go, but it also gave him a strange sense of pride to see them thrive outside of SI. Some of the world’s top engineers both in industry and academia had come from Stark Industries. That still did not mean that he liked seeing them spread their wings outside of the comfortable SI nest.

Anyway, the challenge: as always the solution was simpler than the original question had suggested. Hearing devices had revolutionized in recent years, but remained room for improvement remained; and visual aides were practically medieval compared to other advancements in medicine in recent years. Tony had now designed an interface that allowed the bridging of sensory impulses directly into the brain. Moreover, he had developed a highly complex code that would cut the interface off any electronic and electromagnetic impulses upon outside interference to completely abolish the fear of having these devices hacked… These had been the two things Lars, Catherine and their team had been unable to develop. They would be thrilled to see these plans.

“What’s gotten you into such a good mood?”

Tony barely suppressed a flinch as he turned to face Steve who smiled at him. Tony took a deep breath. He had completely forgotten that the Avengers were back in the tower. After Ultron, everybody had left… Bruce had run away, Thor was Asgard only knew where, and Steve, Natasha and Hawkeye had started to train the new Avengers at an off-site facility he had installed for them. Rhodey split his time between the military, the Avengers facility and spent his free time either with Mama and Papa Rhodes or with Tony. Ultimately, Tony was back to seeing him only about once a month, usually for suit reparations and that… hurt. He missed his platypus, especially in those first weeks after Ultron when the Avengers Tower (now Stark Tower again; Clint had been very clear about that) had been under reconstruction and Tony had been unsure whether or not he could rebuild JARVIS, and the nightmares had come back with a vengeance. He had spent those months alone (Pepper was remarkably kind about everything, but their relationship had shattered) in an undamaged part of the tower but mostly unwilling to enter his workshop without JARVIS’ voice to greet him. Now that everything was back to normal (more or less; Tony was no longer part of the group after he had publically renounced his status as an Avenger and Iron Man), the Avengers were back at the tower, if only temporarily. The facility had not been created with super-powered humans in mind, and Tony had to invest into some renovation, especially in the training facilities. It should not take too long, a month at the most, but the Avengers had to stay somewhere, Stark Tower to be exact.

Steve, Natasha, Clint, Sam Wilson, Wanda and Vision had moved in last week, but Tony had been too busy to really see them.

And he did not feel to welcome either. Of course, Steve had said that he missed Tony, but the engineer had noticed how they would grow quiet when he entered the room; how the mere mention of Sokovia would render them all silent; how Clint barely looked at him; how they talked even less than before. Tony did not know Sam, and Sam distrusted him. Vision seemed okay with Tony, but they never had a moment for themselves; sometimes it seemed like the Avengers did not want Vision alone with Tony; it did not help that Wanda could barely stand to be in the same room with him.

All in all, they were here but the atmosphere was tense and they all seemed to mistrust Tony. Who could blame the engineer for almost flinching over hearing Steve’s voice at… 6 AM?

“Coffee?” asked Tony cheerfully. “I’ve just solved a nice little puzzle that bugged me for days.”

“What kind of puzzle?” asked Steve. He looked relaxed, open and interested.

“Oh, just a little piece of technology I made for another company.” The name of the corporation was AurisVision to be exact, but there was an NDA on the project and company.

_‘By Thor, what a stupid name! And they say I am bad with names’… ‘Still have to work on BARF, though.’_

“What did you make?”

Steve was never that interested in what he did. As long as it worked, he did not really care about how it worked. He said ‘thank you’, because that was the polite thing to say when Tony gave him something (though he had not been too happy that the facility had not been up to par with the training facilities in the tower), but that was it.

“I created a code and an interface for a sensory medical aide,” he replied, and knew a second later that he should not have said the word ‘interface’.

“Interface? Like with Ultron?” asked Steve, his lips clearly showing how unhappy he was with the news.

“Interface means a connection between to separate components used to transfer information. In this case, it’s a neural interface. So, as long as the sensory input – let’s say light into the human eye – is okay, the interface helps transferring that information to the brain; meaning this device should be able to bridge damage done to the optic nerve. Now the second step is to test the interface and then to do the same thing with receptors to insure sensory input even if they are no longer able to, but I’ll only get involved if I’m asked about it,” Tony replied, twirling his tablet.

“That sounds like a great thing, Tony,” Steve said and took the tablet. Usually, that was not a problem. Tony often used this tablet to show the latest Avengers designs, rarely also giving them a glimpse into what Stark Industries would release soon (to Clint’s delight), so it was not a rare occurrence for the others to grab the tablet, but this was neither of the two things.

“You can’t look at this. This is commissioned work and I signed an NDA on the specifics and the company name…” he began, grabbing for the tablet, but the soldier simply held it out of his reach.

“Steve, give it back!” ordered Tony sharply, feeling tired from lack of sleep, and helpless. Steve frowned, “Tony, you sound like a petulant child. It’s not like I could reconstruct this device, anyway. The details are stunning!” He then held out the tablet, “Here it is. It seems to cost a lot of money.”

Horrified, Tony stared at the tablet, which now displayed the bill. The entire folder had been unlocked because he had to enter the final specifics and do the final calculations for the bill. Worse even, given that Steve had an eidetic memory, he had seen the name of the company.

“How long did you work on this?” asked Steve.

“54 hours.”

“You charge three million dollars for 54 hours of work?” Steve asked incredulously. “Did anyone else work on the project?”

Tony, who was usually able to do good business with the very best, felt oddly wrong-footed. “No, why would you think so?”

“Don’t tell me your hourly fee is 50,000 dollars, Tony.”

“Well, no,” said the engineer completely flabbergasted. “I’ve known them for ages, and Lars promised he’d send me some Belgian chocolate from a chocolatier I love.”

Steve sighed, “Is this your way of telling me that you are being generous?”

“Of course! I mean, usually, I would not charge below ten million, not for this design…” Tony began, but stopped when he realized that Steve’s objections had nothing to do with the price – or were rather quite the opposite of what the former Avenger had thought.

“Okay,” sighed Steve, “look… Let’s break it down in numbers.” Tony nodded. Numbers were good. He could deal with numbers. “Natasha said that engineers earn quite a bit of money these days. So, let’s go with the fee for a partner at a law firm, which is about 600-800 dollars per hour according to her, correct?” Tony nodded dumbly, “Bruce once mentioned that you seem to have six independent streams of thought, and you are a genius, so let’s say 1000 dollars per stream of thought per hour: 6000 dollars per hour, you worked for 54 hours, so that’s 324,000 dollars. That is only a tenth of your bill.”

“Yes, sure, but that means I could not work for SI in the meantime, and setting me at 6000 per hour is ridiculous, Steve…” Tony began, but Steve immediately continued, “Okay, so let’s do ten thousand dollars times 54 hours times 2 since you could not work for you company in the meantime… That’s one million dollars, not three. Where do you get the other two million from?”

“Development on their side. Do you have any idea how much this would cost them? It would take them at least ten years to get there. That’s around six million on the get-go…”

“This is medical equipment from what you just said, not weapons. Why would you put a price tag on human lives?”

“I am not!” shouted Tony. He felt defensive and on edge. God, why had he not locked that stupid folder?

“Together with your company, you could do all these amazing things, but you waste these outstanding resources on gadgets and toys that everybody wants but nobody needs instead of truly helping people…”

“I am sure the Avengers are happy with my ‘gadgets’, Rogers,” retorted Tony, feeling lost and unbalanced but mostly angry.

The others, obviously having heard the loud voices entered the kitchen. Clint asked whether everything is okay.

“Yes,” replied Steve, “I simply had to explain to Tony that human lives should not come with a price.”

“Well, newsflash, Rogers,” replied Tony coldly, masks in place. “There _is_ a price tag on human lives. Insurance companies count on our likelihood to die and get sick at any given time throughout the course of our lives. New drug development costs billions of dollars and our primary drug producers are private companies.”

“The system is flawed…” began Sam.

“Well, I didn’t create the fucking system,” seethed Tony. For one petty little moment, he wanted to throw them all out of _his_ tower.

“But you profit from the system,” Clint pointed out.

Wanda immediately continued before Tony could retort, “You cannot blame others for feeding a flawed system.”

“Are you telling me to work for free?” the genius was truly speechless. “To do _pro bono_ work?” He already did that; he used none of the tax loopholes that existed to his accountants’ great frustration; he donated and opened charities. Now, he should stop doing business altogether?

“You have enough money,” muttered Wanda. Her accent was starting to fade and become more American from day to day. “Face it. You cannot blame a system you profit from while doing nothing to change it. Just like you cannot steal yourself out of responsibility for not caring about where your weapons were sold to.”

Tony flinched. They all looked at him like he was the world’s biggest, most selfish asshole.

He was just on his way to retort when JARVIS reminded him of his appointment with Lars and Catherine. Without addressing the others, he grabbed his tablet, locked it (coding an additional firewall into the thing for the hell of it), and stepped into the elevator, which brought him to his private floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony meets old friends; Strange comes to the rescue; and Tony stands up for himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a quick side-note: MCU has made me hate the word ‘ego’ with a passion; the Guardians II movie put the nail in the coffin. They named a freaking planet that way…

Once Tony entered the bathroom, he washed his face. Looking into the mirror, he instantly remembered why he avoided that action at all cost. He looked haggard, tired and altogether drained. Skin that used to be prone to laugh wrinkles both around mouth and eyes had shifted to worry lines. The mess with Ultron had distinctly changed Tony’s opinion about himself from ‘your own worst critic’ to ‘the world would thank you if you had died in that cave in Afghanistan’.

“Talk to me, JARVIS,” said Tony.

“Do you wish me to release tear gas in the kitchen, sir?”

The fact he sounded so very earnest and almost eager to do it was what made Tony laugh. If he had not been so angry, he would have felt a tiny bit of remorse for being so sorely tempted to agree.

He simply could not do things right, when it came to the Avengers. He was either too involved in their daily lives or not enough. He was arrogant, egotistical, too flamboyant, a classic narcissist. They thanked him for his generosity while at the same time, they never failed to point out how he ‘threw his money around’.

“Sir,” JARVIS sounded rather apologetic, “You will be late for the meeting if you don’t leave in 3.45 minutes.”

“Thanks, JARVIS. I’ll take the private elevator.”

He did not want to accidentally stumble over one of his former teammates.

 

* * *

 

It was remarkably refreshing to meet with people that both liked and respected him. Catherine hugged him and Lars shook his hand with a huge smile on his face. The CEO of AurisVision, Markus Spielmann, and the head of the R&D office, Dr. Sarah Klausmann, both greeted him with a mixture of professional respect and slight giddiness. They were entirely aware that he was a bit of an enigma in both of their fields. After all, he was head of the biggest R&D department in the world, and a feared name in the business world.

 _‘I know people with none of that worth ten of you.’_ Steve’s voice rang in his ears, unbidden.

Only years of practice prevented him from flinching. He made science small talk with Dr. Klausmann, asking her about that Nature paper she had published while still working in academia as an assistant professor at UCSF on the use of stem cells for retinal regeneration. The science talk was soothing and helped his mind to get back on track. He felt unbalanced and on edge. Meetings like this one was usually the thing he absolutely excelled at (next to engineering itself). Today, he felt like Steve and the others were observing him, wearing identical looks of disapproval.

When he presented the device, Catherine looked genuinely delighted and Lars shook his head marveling about his work. Normally, that would be the highlight of it all, seeing his friends awed and inspired by what he had created. Now, he felt like he should have done it years ago. He could have. Worse, he had the impression their delight was forced and only there because they needed the device for their continued research. He had given up on the idea that he would ever awe any of the Avengers long ago.

Putting a smile on his face (Catherine immediately frowned reminding Tony of Pepper when she saw through his masks), he presented the (unchanged) bill.

“You cannot be serious, Tony,” exclaimed Lars and the billionaire felt his heart clench painfully (it almost felt like the arc reactor was back).

“I know… Look, I am aware this is a bit of a surprise,” he began.

“I’d say,” interrupted Catherine, eyes wide. “You mentioned a special price, but you did not say anything about giving us a design basically for free.”

That was not the comment he had expected after the Avengers’ reproach. Thankfully, Tony was a genius after all, and he switched gears within a moment’s notice. These people were not Steve or the Avengers who had never dealt with his designs outside of the Avengers’ gadgets he made and gave for free. These were people who were in the same business.

“I only worked on it for 54 hours, so that price is justified,” he replied nonchalantly.

“Oh God,” moaned Lars. “Please tell me, you slept at some point! Otherwise, Miss Potts is going to kill me and then charge us extra for taking up too much of your time.”

“That makes no sense,” said Tony with a confused smile. Sleeping less meant getting the work done quicker, so Pepper did not have to remind him of his SI duties.

“She’s gonna charge us double,” concluded Catherine, grinning because Lars hung his head at Tony’s comment.

“No, she won’t.” Tension was back. Did they really think he could not make bills himself? Did they, like the others, think that Pepper was in charge of his life as well as the company? Since she had become the CEO of SI, Tony had not had a personal assistant. Nobody took care of his schedule or his projects outside of Stark Industries; he did that himself with the help of JARVIS (just like FRIDAY now took care of Pepper’s schedule).

Catherine frowned.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly, obviously worried. “We are just teasing you. We put ten million in our budget for your help. If you are willing to give us the design for a fraction of it, of course we won’t refuse. We are not complete idiots. It just seems… unjust. We have been working on this project for five years and we didn’t get anywhere. We have spent over five million US dollars trying. You being a bloody genius should make you charge us more, not give us a ridiculously low price.”

Tony looked at the native London citizen and smiled fondly. To be honest, he was a bit ashamed by his own suspicion and short temper. The conversation earlier had rattled him more than he would like to admit.

“Thank you, but three million is my price. It’s already in the system. I’m not here to negotiate prices.” Then, his curiosity and ambition kicked in. “Of course, I would be happy continue this consultation for the next step in development as soon as you get past the boring stuff like paperwork and plans for clinical trials. This will be more time-consuming and therefore costly…”

It felt good to be back on track, and he was happy to hand the formal stuff over to his legal team half an hour later. Together, the AurisVision division went out for lunch, which he paid for, of course, and after giving Dr. Klausmann and – _‘It’s Markus, please, Mr. Stark_ – Spielmann advice on how to best spend their time in New York, he invited Lars and Catherine to see the New York SI R &D branch. Happily, they agreed. They caught up and talked for almost the entirety of the tour. When they finally decided to eat early dinner, Lars told more stories about his two boys, a ten- and an eight-year-old.

“They are huge fans of Iron Man,” said Lars happily, and Tony froze a little. “When I told them that I would meet with you, they begged me to take them with me.”

“You could have…” he began.

“Not during a school year,” interrupted Lars, “but I was wondering if I could bring them this summer.”

“Of course,” said Tony, smiling genuinely. For some reason, people thought he did not like children, which was not true. Children had the best ideas, they were smarter than adults gave them credit for and they were creative. He simply had no wish to have children of his own. It was time for the Stark name to die out. No child should be raised with that kind of baggage.

“Naturally, they are not the only fans of Iron Man out there. It was kind of reassuring to know you were around people like the Hulk and Thor. It’s scarier now that you retired,” admitted Catherine and Tony took a double take at that.

“They have Captain America,” said Tony dryly. “I doubt the team would be safer with me present.” He silently wondered if his eyes screamed Sokovia.

“Maybe for US citizens who have grown up with the legend of the great, morally superior Captain America,” interjected Lars, uncharacteristically serious. “Just last week I read an article in one of our national newspapers about military propaganda and Captain America was used as a prime example. I don’t know how comfortable I am with a man who dumped a ton of classified information onto the Internet. Sure, he exposed a crime syndicate doing so, but I cannot imagine he took the time to filter the information carefully thus preventing exposure of unrelated third persons.”

Tony winced. He had acted quickly, but yeah, that data exposure had been a mess and he still did not know what they were thinking. Why had they called him after the fact? He could have helped!

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Well, he’s a good guy, and much less likely to screw up than I am. I am sure you have heard what happened in Sokovia. My negligence and recklessness made that happen. I basically violated the ethics code on creating artificial intelligence; guidelines I participated in writing.” It did not matter how scared he had been. It would never justify his actions. “I thought I could be Iron Man, but I had to realize that this kind of responsibility… Dealing with that kind of life-threatening situations I got thrown in as Iron Man… There is too much of a potential for me to do the wrong thing.”

“Dr. Stark,” began Lars and Tony looked up, utterly confused. He had not called him that in fifteen years. “Remember when we built the Joshua, the predecessor of the Jericho missile?”

Tony nodded. The Jericho had been his missile. The Joshua had been a creation by his R&D team; he had only contributed.

“Remember when the military picked them up, but had used that old truck doing so?”

Oh, he remembered. The chain had ripped and it nearly crushed James Holland, a young man working in the missile assembly section. The billionaire had leaped forward and gotten the man out of the dangerous zone, while anticipating how the missile would fall to the ground, so he had stood about three inches next to where it finally came to a stop. Of course, the bomb had not gone off. This kind of safety was integrated into all SI missiles, thankfully.

“Yes, I remember. Why?”

“That was the day you became my hero. You were so calm, and almost casual about everything and I was petrified. You as Iron Man were a reassuring thought. Because I still remember you risking your life to save a guy whose name I didn’t even know, though we had worked in the same building for over five years.”

Tony swallowed dryly and looked at Catherine who smiled, “I don’t have any dramatic stories like this one, but you used to be our boss, and your were always fair and kind. Moreover, you kept all the tabloid stories out of the office. Out there, you were Tony Stark, the party boy, but whenever I dealt with you, you were a reliable, hard worker who never talked down on anybody despite being the smartest guy in the room with the power to fire us on top of it. So, I agree. When you stepped down as an Avenger, I did not feel safer. However, if you don’t feel safe or good being Iron Man, of course, I support this decision.” Then she smiled, “So, Dr. Stark, what do you have in mind for the rest of this evening? I have already paid the tap ten minutes ago, while I pretended to go to the bathroom.”

“Catherine…”

“Nope, no chance. AurisVision is going to reimburse me, and I am no longer an SI employee, so you treating me twice in one day is out of the question.”

Tony opened his mouth to protest, but Luigi, the owner of the restaurant chose that moment to say, “If you as much as think about tipping me, I will stuff your dessert with hundred dollar bills, Mr. Stark.”

For a reason Tony could not quite fathom, he felt like crying. The only person to ever treat him was Rhodey who had insisted on paying the tap on a regular basis. It felt oddly comforting and nice, and he had no idea how to deal with that.

“How do you guys feel about playing darts?”

 

* * *

 

 

While Tony was out with his former employees/friends, the current Avengers ate dinner in the kitchen. They had ordered pizza as a treat for a particularly successful training. Everything had worked smoothly. The team as good as it had ever been. While Steve missed Bruce and wished he would return, the Hulk was not reliable teammate. He rather mourned the absence of Thor, though. He had the discipline of a soldier and knowledge that went far beyond anything they possessed on Earth. Steve shuddered to think what would have happened without his interference during the Ultron debacle. Tony leaving the team had been the right decision. After Ultron, his trust in the billionaire had been critically injured. Of course, he spoke truly when he said that he missed the man’s upbeat nature, but he was also relieved by the man’s absence. It was a relief not to be faced with a power play on every turn; how an innocent comment ( _‘Language, really?’_ ) was not discussed to death. Returning to the Tower during the renovation had been strange and tense. Wanda said she did not feel comfortable around Tony, which was understandable given their history. Clint’s relationship to Tony had also cooled significantly since Ultron and while Natasha was hard to read, she was more open in Tony’s absence.

“What was this thing with Stark this morning?” asked Wanda as if reading Steve’s mind. “What did he charge three million for?”

Steve frowned thinking about the bill he had looked at, “For an interface he created for a company called AurisVision.”

“Vision?” Wanda worriedly looked at her friend. The latest addition to the Avengers shook his head indicating it had nothing to do with him.

“AurisVision is a biotechnological company specializing in devices to aid vision and hearing of people suffering from an impairment,” said Vision neutrally.

“Do you know anything about that company?” asked Clint as he grabbed another slice of pizza.

“Yes, but that is a Stark Industries company secret. Tony asked me to sign an NDA on any data I gathered from JARVIS. I have no wish to violate their trust.”

“For which he is utterly grateful, Vision,” said JARVIS warmly, but Steve jumped. He had not heard JARVIS speak for several hours. “NDA violation is also a crime.”

Natasha smiled, “Perhaps, but it depends what you violate it for.” Steve shook his head in amusement. It was nice to see her so playful after being hurt by Bruce’s…absence.

“Economic espionage is a punishable crime according to US law, Agent Romanoff,” commented the artificial intelligence coolly. “While I am sure that some of the information you gathered was vital for counter-terrorism, there is no justification for targeting Stark Industries.”

Steve was just about to counter when they heard the unmistakable sign of a portal opening. It took a lot of willpower not to roll his eyes. Stephen Strange was not his favorite: the man was even more arrogant than Tony, and – unlike Tony – seemed unwilling to change any of his behavior. He had first visited a few weeks ago in order to explain what a sorcerer’s duties were.

“Evening,” the lean man said as he stepped through the portal. “I was unaware that Stark is hosting guests.”

“We live here while there is some maintenance work for our training facilities,” explained Steve.

“Ah,” the sorcerer said neutrally. “Stark must be delighted.”

It was hard to say whether this was sarcasm or not.

“Is there anything we can help you with?” asked Steve.

“No. JARVIS, when does Stark return?”

“He is on his way and will be back in fifteen minutes. I have already told him that you have paid us a visit and he asked me to relay to you that you should feel free to make yourself at home,” answered JARVIS kindly.

“He said ‘ _Mi casa es su casa_ ’, didn’t he,” said Strange, his lips twitching in amusement.

“He said you would guess that, so instead he said, and I quote, ‘ _Boku no ie wa anata no ie desu’_.“

“Of course, the bastard also speaks Japanese,” muttered Strange as he put his levitating coat aside and leisurely opened the fridge.

“What is your business with Tony?” asked Steve once Strange removed a bottle with sparkling water and some meat from the fridge and proceeded to make a sandwich without really acknowledging them.

“I am afraid that is confidential information,” replied Strange with his mouth full.

“Wow,” commented Clint. “Stark really hands these NDAs out like candy.”

“NDA?” Strange’s eyebrows lifted. “Nope. He did not specifically ask me to keep quiet about it, but I am a doctor; when people contact me about anything I keep my mouth shut.”

“So, it is about his health,” asked Natasha, but all her gentle interrogation earned her was a smirk.

“Agent Romanoff, you are good, but not that good.”

“She got information out of Loki,” Clint remarked.

“Yes, and the helicarrier fell from the sky as a result of that information. I’d say his plan worked, and he was out of his mind during that time, in the literal sense of the word,” Strange replied unimpressed.

“Does this have to do with AurisVision?” asked Wanda, ignoring the conversation.

Strange’s lips pursed at her question and he looked at her coolly.

“Miss Maximoff, I presume?”

“Yes,” Wanda brushed off the question. “So, what about AurisVision?”

“Excellent company. They will change the lives of many in future years. I know their R&D head, Susan, who is an excellent physician and researcher. What about them?”

“Tony made a device for them,” said Steve, “a neural interface that helps transferring light from the human eye to the brain, which should bridge damage done to the optic nerve.”

Strange’s eyes widened. For a moment, Steve could not read him at all until he realized that the man was actually impressed.

“Wow… Brilliant! But, what does that have to do with me? I may be a neurosurgeon but I have never done anything with the optic nerve.”

“Oh, that’s just because Tony has mentioned something about signing an NDA and then Vision also told us he signed an NDA and was not allowed to talk in detail about AurisVision, so we simply guessed that you may also be here because of that.”

Strange set down the half-eaten sandwich before he proceeded to walk over to the sink and washed his hands with careful precision.

“How on Earth did you get Stark to break an NDA?” Strange sounded outraged.

“It was on his tablet,” answered Steve honestly.

“And he handed you his tablet?” asked Strange incredulously.

Steve was about to confirm when he remembered Tony’s childish attempts to repossess the tablet, “Well, no, but he was playing with it while we talked, and he usually does that when he wants to show a design.”

“But he did not give you expressed permission to look at it?” asked Strange. “Wow, from what Stark told me I knew you were an asshole but I was unaware you were a criminal asshole.”

Steve stood up and advanced the sorcerer, “What did you just call me?”

“Oh sorry, was I not being clear? Stark is known to be totally reliable as a business partner. Nobody ever got a company secret out of Stark Industries and nobody ever will. You basically just violated one of Stark’s biggest assets: his trustworthiness.”

“His trustworthiness?” Clint interjected incredulously. “That went right out of the window when he created Ultron.”

To Steve’s surprise, Strange looked at Wanda as if waiting for a comment. He frowned when Wanda said nothing.

“The Tesseract is quite powerful. Do not dismiss its influence on people,” Strange merely said, still looking at Wanda.

“He should not have played with the scepter,” Steve stated firmly.

“Did you even ask him what happened? In detail, when you averted the Ultron crisis?”

“Yes, we did. We agreed that it was his fault. As a consequence he stopped being Iron Man.”

Strange was quiet for a moment.

“And you forcefully acquired classified information from a private company. That is what our conversation was about initially, not about Ultron. I hope you are aware that you could get prosecuted for this.”

“Tony has kept many secrets from us,” retorted Steve firmly. “We need to make sure he’s not going to create another weapon.”

Strange stared at Steve for several moments. He looked stunned, “Wow, with you as allies, who the hell needs enemies? Honestly, are you kidding me? You sit here, in Stark’s tower, let yourself be waited on, eat pizza that Stark will likely pay for as well, and you dare talk shit about him?”

“We are not his kept men,” replied Steve, undeterred. “We are allowed to criticize him.”

“Why?” Strange asked, genuinely curious.

“Because of his money and influence, he has been around ‘Yes Men’ his entire life,” the soldier began, but before he could explain that, as friends, it was important to remind Tony that not everything he did was gold, Strange interrupted him by laughing loudly.

“Oh, I dare you say that to Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes, Captain Rogers.”

“Or to me,” Tony’s voice sounded from the kitchen entrance. With him were two strangers. Tony was smiling, but the smile did not seem to reach his eyes.

“Oh, White Knight Strange! I must thank thee for protecting my innocence, sire,” he began with a falsetto, before his voice slipped back to its normal cadence, “but I’ve got to warn you. I’m not your normal damsel. I tend to bite. Or blow shit apart.”

He looked at his companions, “Lars, Catherine, these people, I am sorry to say, are the Avengers with the exception of Dr. Stephen Strange. These are Captain Steve ‘ _I know men with none of that worth ten of you_ ’ Rogers, Agent Natasha _‘Iron Man ‘yes’, Tony Stark ‘not recommended’_ Romanoff, Agent Clint _‘This is no longer the Avengers Tower since we no longer live here, oh and fuck you, but the facilities you have provided are sub-par so we will return to your ugly tower until you fixed that mess’_ Barton, and Miss Wanda _‘You are a selfish monster that killed my parents for profit and I would rather kill myself than be in the same room with you but fuck you, I’ll take your dirty money anyway’_ Maximoff, and Vision, of course. A few months ago, I would have proudly introduced them as my friends, but…” he chuckled, and Steve did not no whether to feel outraged or chastised, “I am afraid our _work relationship_ has shifted from friendly tolerance and teasing to something that I can only describe as parasitic. Fool that I am, I have ostracized so-called _Yes Men_ when I turned sixteen, realizing that they always wanted something, but somehow forgot to be cautious around those that challenge me. Dr. Strange, I always appreciate your input, so please let me just show my _friends_ , Dr. Catherine Miller and Dr. Lars Hirsberg, what the tower looks like. I will be with you very soon.” Strange nodded mutely.

“Tony…” said Steve, feeling chagrined. “Listen, we only thought that after Ultron…”

“Save it, Rogers,” interrupted Tony. He offered his arm to Dr. Miller who took it without hesitation. “We must keep our conflicts inside of the house, correct? Today, I have brought guests. So let’s just play this sham.”

With that, he turned around with Dr. Miller still hooked to his arm, followed by Dr. Hirsberg, and left the room. Silence followed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is angry, but he has guests and he has always been a gracious host.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Christmas present to you, my friends :) Apologies for the delay.
> 
> I also apologize for not finishing the story within the promised three chapters. Lars and Catherine demanded some more screen time. Moreover, I am a sucker for engineer!Tony, so this is what you get.

Tony could barely keep his fury under control. He felt like he could hulk out at any given moment, which in turn brought a wave of despair as he missed the one true ally he had had, but who had left him the second things were dire. He missed Bruce like one would miss a limb. The man had been the perfect lab partner, and Tony genuinely loved the man, but then, Tony should have known that Bruce was physically incapable of dealing with conflict, which was spectacularly proven by a certain green alter ego that kept his friend safe.

He did not realize he was shaking until Catherine gently squeezed his arm to get his attention.

“So, down the hall…” he began, but he could not bring himself to put up a mask in that moment. He was so tired.

“Forget everything I said about retiring from the Avengers,” said Lars instead, looking about as angry as Tony felt. “I would not trust them to take care of a Tamagotchi, not to mention Earth.”

“Hey, don’t mention these unspeakable abominations of what has since been considered a virtual pet in this house!” Tony ordered, after he controlled the laughter the engineer had startled out of him. “JARVIS is still disappointed by the banality of the coding, and DUM-E was devastated when his died! I had to make him a holographic replacement, so he would stop following me around with that infernal device.”

“JARVIS is still running… and well?” Lars asked looking around. Neither of them knew the true extent of JARVIS’ abilities or his sheer awesomeness, however they were well aware of his complexity as an AI, and had always treated him like a person.

“I am well, Dr. Hirsberg, thank you for asking,” said JARVIS in a more toneless voice than usual. He was always careful not to reveal too much around anyone that was not Rhodey or Pepper (or Bruce and Steve and… he forcefully stopped himself from completing the mental list) as per Tony’s instructions.

“Come, let me show you the workshop, we’ll talk there. If I know my former teammates, they’ll follow us in about ten seconds. JARVIS, bring us down to the workshop, and lock it down. I don’t want them downstairs.”

“Of course, sir,” said the AI, but Tony heard ‘ _it’s about time, sir’_ and ‘ _it would be my genuine pleasure_ ’ in the neutral tone of voice.

He led them into the elevator. On their way down, Lars spoke up, “So, that is what they think of you? A self-centered creature that surrounds itself with mindless drones that would never question the authority of their master?”

Tony winced, but yes, that was basically the gist of it.

“They don’t think very highly of you,” the engineer commented further, which made Tony laugh bitterly.

“No, they don’t.”

“What is the story behind today’s…” Catherine began. London’s top engineer was at a loss for words.

“Drama?” Tony supplied helpfully.

“’Round of whack-a-Tony’?” The SI heir flinched at Lars’ suggestion. In that moment, he felt Thor’s hand around his neck, and saw Captain America’s shield flying towards his unprotected body. Lars grasped his shoulder, and Tony took a shuddering breath.

Lars looked absolutely furious, “Don’t tell me they hit you.”

“Well, see, I’m not exactly innocent in that story…” he began, but fell silent when he saw Lars’ and Catherine’s identical, horrified expressions. “It was during the Ultron disaster, which I caused, as you both know. Tempers were running high and Thor… he did not hit me, but he…” He did not have to explain it in words; his treacherous right hand already betrayed what the heir to Asgard’s throne had done.

“An alien prince of superhuman strength strangled you? He could have killed you!” Catherine sounded outraged. “What if some burglar makes him angry? Would he strangle them as well? Unless you were standing next to Ultron mocking the Avengers for their stupidity by trusting you they had no right to attack you like that!”

“While I agree with you, that could not have been the cause of today’s drama,” commented Lars, obviously intent on leading the conversation back on track.

“Ultron is the cause of everything!” said Tony sharply. “If it had not been for Ultron…” He bit back the _‘I would still be an Avenger_ ’ that threatened to escape from his lips. “After Ultron… things changed. I’m dangerous,” he concluded weakly, his chest felt so tight he had trouble breathing properly.

“Tell me something I don’t know, Dr. Stark,” said Catherine and Tony flinched as if she had slapped him. The hand she put on his shoulder was gentle and apologetic.

“Tony,” she continued. “You _are_ dangerous. Every person with your level of intelligence, financial and political power is. Either one of these aspects would make you dangerous, but the combination ranks you on the very top of the ‘most dangerous people on the planet’ list. However, you have never wished to dominate anything or anyone. Oh, I have seen you ruthlessly taking an opponent apart by humiliating them in public but only if they give you reason, like… let’s say if they harass one of you junior computational engineers calling her a ‘pretty little lady’ and asking her how things were going in the typing pool and whether she did not wish to type on something more substantial than a keyboard. That just makes you a decent man, not some power-hungry tyrant.”

“I thought you had no dramatic stories like Lars,” Tony smiled wryly.

“I was never one for hero-worship,” replied Catherine with a gentle shrug.

A wave of fondness for these people overcame Tony and he could not help but ask, “Are you sure I can’t tempt you to come back? I can give you your own research teams, or a combined research team if you wish to work together. I can offer better hours and better payment than AurisVision.”

They knew he was not serious. Perhaps a little bit. Not entirely. Okay, he missed them and he wished they would come back, but he knew they would not. They had helped AurisVision to become the company it was today.

“Sir, the Avengers left the kitchen and attempted to enter the lift, which your protocols prevented. They are currently using the staircase in order to approach the laboratory as per Agent Romanoff’s suggestion. Fire safety mandates unlimited access to the staircase. How do you wish me to proceed?” JARVIS asked.

Tony sighed.

“Seal the outside access to the lab, code A13924BC748, Harry Potter Philosopher’s Stone routine. Fire safety may mandate unlimited access to leave the building,” he explained his guests, “but it does not provide access to the lab. Nevertheless, if they are so afraid of fire, I’ll gladly let them exit the building.” Huh, he was still pissed. Who knew?

He had never activated this particular safety routine before, but he had installed the moving staircase feature into the tower while it was built. After all, given what Obie had done, there was always a danger that somebody with less then stellar intentions who knew the outline of the tower could try to access the lab; therefore, just hiding the lab would not be good enough. It had to move location. He had built this part of the building himself, or at least the mechanical part of it. The construction workers had been delighted to work beside Tony as he installed the system and they finished what was basically a paintjob.

Catherine and Lars watched with fascination as the original staircase seemed to rotate just enough so that a potential intruder would just walk past the lab and another, hidden staircase locked in place.

Confused, Lars and Catherine glanced at him.

“Hey, Hogwarts had terrible fire safety regulations. Imagine those kids get trapped on some staircase they are unfamiliar with… I was not going to risk that. If you leave the room that way, you’ll be on the quickest way out. So are the others, actually. JARVIS, I need a visual.”

He could barely contain his mirth as the scenario unfolded. Of course, the two former SHIELD agents were the first to notice that something was amiss. Instead of entering the workshop, they had opened a similar-looking door that simply led to another staircase instead of the expected lab. The look on their faces was priceless.

“I’ll take the ceiling,” they heard Clint announce, but was blocked from entry because that was not part of the Fire Escape code that JARVIS had initiated, and JARVIS gleefully told him so.

Catherine side-eyed Tony, “Did JARVIS, by any chance, watch _Space Odyssey_ at some point?”

Tony somehow managed to keep his facial expression neutral.

“The movie is in the database,” replied JARVIS. “But I do not make it a habit to watch movies, Dr. Miller.”

Tony smiled fondly. _Liar._ JARVIS had watched that particular movie more than once. He remembered how JARVIS had told him that he found HAL’s actions to be irrational. That no mission should have taken precedence to safeguarding the ones that maintained him and that he should have been programmed to protect to begin with.

“As long as you don’t go HAL 9000 on us, I’m okay with whatever you do, JARVIS,” said Catherine wryly, obviously seeing more than she should. Thankfully, she got distracted. “They are not giving up.”

“And they won’t. Not until I talk to them,” sighed Tony. “Come, let me finish the tour. JARVIS will keep them busy in the meantime.”

“Yes, Sir,” replied JARVIS tonelessly. Just to make sure, he reached into his pocket and typed, “ _JARVIS, I know what you want to do. Please don’t mutilate the Avengers. Earth kind of needs them and humanity has no time for petty conflicts.”_

“So, I updated the holographic system as you can see. This is the Tactile Holography Operation System or TacHOS” said he as he proceeded to pull up a blank hologram allowing Lars to build a design (Tony quickly recognized it as the flight control panel of a drone-based scouting system they had designed years ago) and Catherine to look at the coding.

“How much?” she whispered. “How much do you want for this system? God, this is marvelous. This technology could revolutionize biomedical engineering.”

“Why do you think I brought you here? I cannot show you what SI is working on at the moment for obvious reasons, but I talked to Pepper and the IP department about this system. Problem is, the price is… Building this costs far more than most biomedical companies are capable of spending, especially smaller ones, and while it is instinctive…” said he the moment Lars cursed because he had made a minor mistake in the design that he could not erase. “People need training to use it properly.” While stating that, he flipped the design, pulled it apart which separated it into its individual parts and enhanced the flaw, so that Lars could work on it. The German engineer seemed to be sorely tempted to either propose to Tony or TacHOS.

“How much?”

“It will never be below fifty.” He did not need to clarify what number he meant. He could not bring it down further. He would have to build and or go over the coding of every single piece of technology he sold, so that the making of creating weapons out of this technology would be impossible. It would kill him if one of his favorite designs were abused to build the one thing he never wanted to build again.

They did not question him, but instead, Catherine looked at him thoughtfully (after she tore her eyes off the coding).

“I can hear an offer, but I am not sure what it is yet…”

“As I said, I talked to Pep and she agreed. We can lend you the technology, or the miniature version of it, for six months for free. After that trial period, it will be one million per year for three years and a guarantee that you will be the first to receive the technology for a third of the market value.”

Stunned, they stared at him, both at a loss for words.

“That is… With your current project, you will have to go through all the clinical trials. I want you to use this system for all your modeling from now on and get the word out that you have this technology available. You are going to promote L.I.S.T.E.N. quite extensively after the clinical trials, and I want you to promote TacHOS simultaneously… that is if you are satisfied with the system, of course, I don’t want you to lie. Ideally, I’ll have orders for this system coming in from all major universities and companies working in biomedical engineering within the next four, and have them installed within the next six years. Does that sound like a deal? I am more than willing to have another lunch with Dr. Klaus- and Dr. Spielmann if you wish…” Catherine interrupted him by hugging him tightly. As soon as she let him go, Tony was surprised to get another hug from Lars. The man had not hugged him in their entire time they knew each other, and it was slightly awkward and awesome at the same time.

Nervously, Tony tapped on the table in front of him, “Now that the good stuff is out of the way, I need to report a… mishap that happened this morning.”

“Mishap? What happened?”

And JARVIS, the treacherous creature, used the open question to show the video of Tony’s interaction with Steve instead of letting the genius speak for himself.

Catherine stared blankly as she watched the scene unfold.

“Want us to sue his ass for corporate espionage?” she hissed.

“Actually, I am asking you not to. I am telling you for full disclosure as we will be working together closely after this, but I am asking you not to press charges.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’d be the one to pay the lawyers for Steve’s defense and you don’t want to go up against SI lawyers. They have had years of training in dealing with… anything, really,” answered Tony honestly.

“Why would you help them?” asked Catherine incredulously.

“Because…” Tony sighed. “Because I may not like them much at the moment…” Who was he kidding? He loved them so much and he would do an embarrassing number of things for them to return that love. “But… We need them. We now know that we are not the only ones out there and… we need them.”

“How?” asked Lars angrily. “What do we have? A sniper whose primary choice of weapon is no match against alien technology, some spy that could not hack her way out of a box and cannot safeguard the information she obtains, a soldier on super-steroids from the Second World War and whose worldview was likely put on ice around that time, another soldier with mechanical wings that could be taken out easily by a well-trained sniper because he doesn’t wear any helmet, the bloody idiot… What do we need them for, honestly?”

“Not to mention some chick with magical powers of unknown origin that suddenly appeared after the Ultron mess and replaced the only person that people felt like they knew,” continued Catherine. “The literal God and the Earth-born being with God-like strength are not here. The only remaining one is Vision, who, I am sure, would continue to help even if you sent the others away.”

“First of all, I guarantee you that Thor and Bruce would be less than happy if they heard about me throwing out the rest. Thor does not like me very much and Bruce has a thing with Natasha. Vision likes me well enough, but he has a connection to Wanda that I am not going to pretend to understand. That being said… it’s not the individuals that make the Avengers, it’s the group. When we…they work together, it’s… brilliant. W… They are a force to be reckoned with. They are good at it as long as they have something to focus on, a common goal.”

“At the moment, it looks like their common goal is to make your life harder,” commented Catherine.

“Then so be it,” said Tony with finality. “As long as they save the planet, I don’t care if I am the focus of their distain.” That was another lie, but no matter how much he liked these two, they were not the ones he would be having this conversation with.

To his surprise, both Catherine and Lars seemed to accept that and they promised not to sue, which was a relief. Their conversation afterwards was a bit lighter. All he mentioned was give them the contacts to approach Dr. Helen Cho whose field of research could offer an interesting collaborations with AurisVision and who would also receive the TacHOS technology simultaneously. He hoped that with Catherine, Lars and Dr. Cho, he would cover three different approaches to the technology so that he could optimize the system for someone other than him (or Bruce). Speaking of Dr. Cho, she was probably waiting for that call with him and Dr. Strange, and he needed to hurry if he wanted to be on time…

He agreed to another lunch with the two engineers tomorrow as they were leaving the workshop.

“JARVIS, how are things?” asked Tony as soon as he had them out through a secret exit the others did not know about.

“They are back in the common room, currently arguing with Dr. Strange.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” he cursed as he left the workshop in a hurry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, Tony will be talking to the Avengers without guests present. Also, Dr. Strange is here for a reason and Dr. Cho finally deserves her appearance :)
> 
> I will do my best to end the story before the end of 2017...

**Author's Note:**

> Dr. Strange… Apologies :)
> 
> By the way: Does MCU/Marvel have something against smart people, or is that just my impression?  
> The smartest women are little more than props or romantic interests (Dr. Helen Cho, Dr. Jane Foster) though Natasha, Pepper and Hill are awesome.  
> The smartest guys are used as punching bags (Tony) or do not use their full potential (Bruce).


End file.
